


Breakdown Gensokyo

by StarlightReliquary



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen, Not an AU though, POV First Person, Post-Apocalypse, i know people dont like it but CHARACTER EMOTIONS, the pairing tag is platonic for now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-18 18:05:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17585708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightReliquary/pseuds/StarlightReliquary
Summary: Marisa Kirisame awakes in a Gensokyo unlike the one she's used to, one in ruin. The sky's turned orange, people are acting strange, everyone has forgotten why any of it happened, and the sun's beating down so hard that most humans can't stay outside for more than a few minutes at a time. Through Marisa's hazy memory, one thing is still clear. She needs to find Reimu, before she too succumbs to the viciousness of this new Gensokyo.( A semi-experimental fanfiction I wrote on a whim. It'll be continued, but relatively slowly, since it's sometimes hard to tell where the story is taking me. )





	Breakdown Gensokyo

“Shit!”

I swore as the branches scratched my face, as I searched through the brush for something I’d lost. Something I needed. Something extremely important that I’d forgotten.

I shoved aside the branches, stepped forward, and pressed onwards.

My partner. My weapon. My everything. I’d dropped it in the forest. Dropped it as if it were nothing. And I didn’t remember why. The forest was dying around me and I didn’t remember why. Every tree barren of leaves and frozen in place, every bush reduced to _spikes_. As if they were _meant_ to torment me.

And I didn’t remember _anything_. From the minute I was born until now, vague recollections persisted. Behind all of them, a single motive.

Find Reimu. I had to find Reimu.

And I couldn’t do that without my weapon. I _knew_ that. My combat _ability_ was high, but my power low- and to compensate, I used a reactor. I knew that. The exact specifics were still beyond me, but I knew that I’d built it based on a design of my fathers’, and that-

My hand brushed up against steel.

“Yes!”

I reached forwards, grabbed it by the handles, and lifted it out of the bush.

An octagonal steel reactor with a bright glow in its center, braced in between eight plates of steel, connected with a metal mesh. It was attached to handles, and could easily be held the way you would a Gatling gun. Nitori, whoever she was, had told me about those.

…And just like a chainsaw, it had an ignition string.

Something wasn’t right. Something in my head was telling me that this was right, and I certainly had the muscle memory for holding this, as I quickly realized, but this wasn’t what I was looking for. Not… exactly, anyways.

On its back, words were emblazoned into the steel. “ **KIRISAME HKR-08 REACTOR** ”.

…My name!

That’s right. I was Marisa Kirisame. I’d built this, back when my father was alive, before the horde invaded and… no, that was wrong. I was Marisa Kirisame. The Ordinary Magician. And this certainly wasn’t any kind of magic I knew about.

I hefted the thing into my hands, trying to get a good look at it. My arms were stronger than I recalled. This thing was very, _very_ heavy, and I could feel that, but it was effortless to carry. My body _knew_ how to brace for it. Yet my mind was still fractured. I still couldn’t tell what was real and what I was misremembering.

I took a deep breath, and wiped my brow. Then, wiping the sweat off on my hat-

…I had no hat.

I shuddered. I felt naked without some kind of head ornamentation. It was just wrong to not have _any_ , at least in my experience.

I shuffled around in my pocket, eventually pulling out a small silver hairpin I didn’t recall buying. Quickly as I could, I did up some of my bangs into a braid and stuck it in place with the hairpin. That would do as a stopgap measure for now, anyways.

…Find Reimu.

I had to find Reimu. And first, I had to remember who she was.

***

My best friend. Dressed in red and white. Unbelievably strong. No way would she be dead. I wasn’t sure if she _could_ die, with her ridiculous abilities. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of her, but that took second place to our friendship and rivalry. Sometimes she won, sometimes I did, but it was good, no matter what.

If only I could remember what we competed in.

Stepping out of the forest I’d found myself in (the Forest of Magic, my memory told me), I was momentarily blinded by the sun. As my vision cleared, I began to realize that the world was much, much different from how I remembered it.

The once green central plains were rotting away, dried by the _enormous_ sun, painting the sky a grim orange, even during daytime. The clouds rolled by, usually black. And for some reason, there was a biting cold flitting through the air.

The Human Village, once a friendly thing on the horizon, was completely absent, a visible ruin in its place. The Misty Lake was more of a Foggy Lake now, Youkai Mountain had an enormous dent in it, and the Hakurei Shrine’s hill…

Gone.

I had to hope it hadn’t taken Reimu with it.

Even if my memory in terms of specifics was gone, it was good to see that my geography at the very least was still up-to-date. But this place… this place was _desolate_.

I took a few steps out into the sun-scorched central plains, and though the ground under my feet crunched, it seemed to be stable. That was good. I’d rather not begin my exploration of… well, wherever I was, without falling directly into Old Hell.

Looking for… well, _anything_ , I marched off towards the Human Village.

***

Just as I’d expected, the place was in ruins. All that remained were the stone foundations of the once-familiar buildings and the rotting wood they left behind. Kirisame General… no, the Kirisame Magic shop, had once stood here. Hell, I’d grown up here before moving to the Petrified Forest-

…The strange names again. I’d initially flagged them as just me forgetting what places were actually called, but they seemed to adequately describe the places I remembered, at least in their current state. That implied a lot of worrying things that I put out of my mind in favor of the more pressing issues.

I hoped I hadn’t been ‘gone’ too long. Whatever magical force or whatever it was that kept me unconscious until just minutes ago. I knew I’d dropped my reactor off my… broom, I think it was, before flying down after it to catch it. Then… something happened, and when I woke up, the world was like this. All mundane, magic-less and…

I looked down at the HKR-08 reactor in my hands.

Mechanical.

I had to find someone else. I knew that much. I’d go insane if I didn’t. Then next would be finding Reimu, and figuring out just what the hell happened to make the world like this. Then… well, who knows.

I’d hoped the human village would be a good starting point. There was a girl I knew from here. Kosuzu. A cutesy type, liked her books, good at getting into trouble. If I could find her, I’d at least be consoled that I wasn’t totally alone in this wasteland that looked an awful lot like home…

“…Marisa?”

A croak of a voice came from behind me. I turned around.

It was a familiar face, that was for sure, though not one I expected this far out from the Forest of Magic. Rinnosuke Morichika. A shopkeeper for a shop specializing in unusual goods from the Outside World. Not popular with humans, but with youkai and outsiders, it was a whole different story. I’d almost forgotten him, but I used to frequent his shop. Not to purchase things, but just to loiter. Good times.

Only… He looked different, now. He’d substituted out his usual colorful garb for a more wasteland-ready brown cloak, and he wore goggles over his face. Presumably both were so he wouldn’t have to deal too much with the wind that had bothered me so much on my way here.

“…Rinnosuke, thank _god_ you’re here, something’s wrong-”

“Um, wait a second, please.” Rinnosuke held up a hand. “I probably shouldn’t have said that, that’s misleading. I’m an amnesiac. I can’t remember a thing since a month ago. I’m shocked your name came to me, but I don’t remember anything else.”

“…Dammit.” I turned away, looking across the village. “But why _are_ you here, though?”

“…Well, since I know you, apparently…. Scavenging, salvaging, looking for parts…” Rinnosuke kicked over a pile of rubble. “My shop has to keep running, after all. Even if all my customers are dead. Or, at least, that’s what my mind tells me. You?”

“Looking for Reimu.”

“Reimu…” Rinnosuke frowned. “Don’t remember her. I need a face, or names just slip by me. Or, alternatively, a familiar hairstyle.”

“Oh. That’s how you knew me, then?”

“…I think so.” Rinnosuke started walking past me. “Anyways, good luck with your affairs. I won’t stop you, whatever you’re doing.”

“Uh, one thing!” I called out to him as he left. “Have you seen anyone else?”

“No. Not yet, anyways.” Rinnosuke waved to me as he left. “Take care, Marisa. Whoever you are.”

He walked off, his cloak swaying a bit in the wasteland wind. He certainly had changed, but I guess he didn’t remember _anything_. That seemed to indicate, at the very least, that I was lucky. Some part of me remembered names, faces, scenes, _magic_ … And Gensokyo. My home. I was pretty sure I was in it now, but…

I sighed.

***

I had a friend named Sanae. I remembered that. She was a shrine maiden, like Reimu, who lived on Youkai Mountain. Another human, too. Not a youkai, or half-youkai like Rinnosuke was. So, not thinking of much else besides human contact, I headed off that way.

I was starting to get a little hungry. I hoped I’d be able to find someone a little more acquainted with the situation soon. I wasn’t sure where you’d be able to find food in a place like this, so it was a little worrying. Normally I’d stop by the Forest of Magic and grab some edible mushrooms if I was really hungry and broke, but judging by the look of the place…

I looked over my shoulder at the barren land, only broken up by the petrified leafless trees.

…I don’t think mushrooms could grow there.

Trying to calm myself a bit, I started cataloguing what I knew. The Forest of Magic was now the Petrified Forest. The Human Village was… the Village Ruins, perhaps? Maybe it wasn’t a genius name, but it was at least descriptive. And then, heading to Youkai Mountain, which now had an enormous hole blasted in its side…

Crescent Mountain.

I physically couldn’t call it anything else. The shape it made against the horizon was unmistakably a crescent moon. A vague fog of recollection passed over me for a little while, but the feeling passed, hardly giving me a second to appreciate the déjà vu.

Well, so long as I was renaming things. Even if Youkai Mountain hadn’t changed, if it was somehow the last bastion of society, then I’d still be calling it Crescent Mountain.

…Someone’s name was slipping my mind, I was sure of it.

I was pretty sure I used to be able to fly, too. I was having trouble getting anywhere right now, thanks to how unnecessarily craggy the terrain was. Flight would have been an enormous benefit, and judging by what few memories I had of the mountain from this angle, I didn’t really know the way up by foot.

However, my _body_ clearly did. Hopping over enormous stones like it was nothing… Now that I was looking, the simple shirt, pants, and boots combo that I was sporting was actually pretty practical. I had to hand it to… myself, I guess. It matched my black-brown-white color palette, though it wasn’t exactly high fashion.

I wasn’t the sort to go for fashion in that way usually, but I guess-

An enormous crashing sound rang out through the air, interrupting my thoughts. Instinctively, I ducked behind the nearest rock, thankfully very large, and looked past its edge, trying to see what had happened. What appeared in front of me, was, well… unexpected.

***

A group of perhaps five humans. Dressed normally, unlike me and the rest of everyone in this damn world. Holding heaps of cucumbers in their arms. They were backing away from an enormous robot. I remembered something like that. An artificial creature created by the kappa. This one was steel, and the original was bronze, but I still knew what it was.

Thermonuclear Titan Hisoutensoku. An automaton used for advertising, though clearly, it had been repurposed. It was a smaller version than the original, but it was still enormous, at least five times the size of a normal human.

“You _bastards_ thought you could just waltz in and take all the food we have? You think that’s _allowed_?”

A familiar voice burst forth from the robot’s… mouth, I supposed. Nitori’s voice. The genius blue-haired kappa designer who had helped me many a time, and, among other things, helped build the original Hisoutensoku. We had been friends, once upon a time!

A rare youkai-human friendship that didn’t end in terror. Though, this was pretty terrifying…

“I _worked_ for this! I’m the only one keeping them alive! And you think that you humans deserve to live more than we do? You lazy, thieving monsters deserve to live more than the ones doing actual work!? Don’t make me laugh!”

So they’d been stealing cucumbers from the kappa. The food situation was so bad, apparently, even for the stronger youkai, that they’d kill over a handful of cucumbers.

The humans really had nobody to blame but themselves for this happening, but just saying that didn’t sit right with me. I mean, sure, they messed with the kappa, and they _knew_ the kappa were strong, but to let humans be oppressed by youkai… the situation had been forced upon us by nature many times over, and while Reimu had alleviated it a little, she was gone.

Normally, that’d be bad, but this time it meant nobody was there to stop me from using all my power.

I glanced down to the HKR. It wasn’t like my old reactor, but…

I pulled out the draw-string, and the engine revved, bursting to life, a bright light bursting from within in all seven colors of the rainbow. I wasn’t exactly the sort to be stealthy, after all. I stepped out from behind the rock, with one hand on the ignition string and the other on the handle, aiming the HKR-08 reactor directly at Nitori’s new Hisoutensoku.

“Hey, guess who’s back?” I asked, revving the ignition one more time as I did.

The Hisoutensoku turned to face me. “Marisa. It’s been a while. Sticking out your neck for a bunch of humans again, I see.”

“Yeah. Just one question before I vaporize your robot there, how much do you remember?” I hoped she knew more than Rinnosuke, at least.

“…Remember? What is there to remember!? These _humans_ have been raiding us for as long as I can recall!” Nitori’s Hisoutensoku flung its arm out to the side. “All my life! All my life they’ve been hurting me! And with my new Hisoutensoku units, I’ll finally end it!”

Well, that cleared a few things up. For one, she’d gone totally nuts. Not only did she not remember as much as Rinnosuke, who was at least aware he was forgetting things, she was completely certain this was her own world. That was a little depressing, to say the least.

Ah well.

“Well, thanks for the info!” I kneed the side of the HKR, and it started spinning up even more. “Which would you like more, stars or a kiss?”

“Ha!” Nitori’s robot crossed its arms. “I’d rather die to your full potential than that joke of an attack any day.”

“Then Master Spark it is!” I pulled on the ignition of the HKR-08, three times in a row.

Then, bracing myself, I held the reactor forwards as a beam of brilliant rainbow energy fired from it, almost twenty times my height in radius alone, engulfing the robot entirely and vaporizing it in seconds.

…I didn’t remember it being _this_ strong. I hoped Nitori was okay, that-

“Okay, good job. That’s enough, though.”

Her voice came from behind me this time.

From seemingly out of thin air, three more Hisoutensoku units appeared. Each at least twice as big as the one I’d just eliminated, and the third the giant bronze one I was used to, but scaled up a bit since I’d last seen it.

Almost as tall as Crescent Mountain itself.

“…oh, _this_ sucks.” I turned the reactor towards this new Hisoutensoku, as it wound down from the Master Spark. “Starlight Reverie, then?”

My body was telling me not to use another Master Spark. And I knew why, even if it was just conjecture. The reactor was steaming hot, and spinning down, cooling. If one Master Spark caused that much heat, I probably wouldn’t be able to unleash another one of those for a good… ten minutes, maybe. Not good news.

“…Marisa, for old times’ sake, I’ll let you go if you want. But our food supply is limited.” The giant Hisoutensoku leaned down, its bronze mask grinning at me. “So these humans don’t get to go anywhere.”

I glanced behind me. The humans I’d been defending were kind of cowering behind me. As if that’d be any kind of shelter… I mean, I had a _reputation_ , sure, but I was out of my element right now. Usually I’d fight flying wizards, not _giant robots_.

I bit my lip, and shrugged as best I could while still holding the HKR.

Might as well go out with a bang, right? Four tugs on the ignition’s all it’d take to unleash a Final Spark. At this heat level, the thing would probably explode and kill me too, but my choices here were to abandon my morals or die. And better to die a hero than to live a coward.

Besides, if this was impressive enough, I could even get resurrected as a god from the belief.

The choice was obvious, then.

“Bring it on, ass-eater.” I readied my hand on the ignition once more. Thank god I still knew how to use this. What I was used to was small and light, so this was kind of…

“Ass-eater. That’s a new one.” Nitori’s Hisoutensoku stood up straight again. “I’ll give you five seconds to wind up, then, make it a fairer fight. Good luck?”

Well, shit.

Five seconds wouldn’t cool the HKR. Five _minutes_ , maybe, but…

…But out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone flying towards us. I’d thought flight was impossible. The Hisoutensoku were grounded, these humans were, so was _I_ , and I was able to fly usually…

***

A blur of green shot across the sky.

Before I had a chance to think, the two smaller of the Hisoutensoku units dropped, cut into pieces. The third, largest one staggered a moment, definitely hit by whatever had hit the others, but it  managed to steady itself. Its armor was clearly much better than the steel models

“…Who the hell…” I looked down to the ground, and saw that my mysterious savior had landed.

In front of me stood a girl with a completely metal upper torso and arms. She wore nothing but a long green skirt and black shoes, and in her hands, she held two swords, with two more sheathed in sheathes strapped to her back. A grand total of four sheaths, _four swords_ …

That aside, her hair was a silver-white, and in it, a black ribbon rested, puffing out into the air beside her. A classic hair decoration that I’d _love_ to have, but it definitely wasn’t on the level of a hat.

The girl spun her swords around to face the remaining Hisoutensoku, and wiped the rust off the edge slowly, holding it out as if for Nitori to see.

“…Humans.” The girl looked over her back. “Run. Get to the shelter. I’ll cover you.”

The humans I’d tried to save collectively decided that listening to her was a good idea and scampered in all directions. A good tactic- even the Hisoutensoku couldn’t cover as much ground as a group of eight humans. One might die, but the rest would survive.

Of course, being me, I didn’t run at all.

The girl glanced back again, turned back to the Hisoutensoku, and then turned back again, startled.

“…Wait, _Marisa?_ ” The girl looked me up and down. “Oh my gods! It’s been so long.”

“Oh, someone who remembers me?” I tilted my head a bit, leaning my leg up against the edge of the reactor in a relaxed manner. “How’s my profile?”

…Did I flirt as a coping mechanism, or was I just stupid?

“…Do you not recognize me without my ghost half?” The girl sighed. “It’s me, Youmu!”

“Oh!”

 _Now_ I recognized her. Youmu… well, typically she was a half-ghost, but given that everything from just below her breasts to the tip of her neck was completely metal now, she looked a little bit different. What was the word… she was a cyborg. Sanae told me about them. Metal men. Or in Youmu’s case, a metal woman. She definitely had breasts, but they certainly didn’t bounce. They looked more functional than for aesthetic, if that makes sense, more like muscles than I’d expected.

Her arms were an intriguing design, too. Like the arms of a doll, but in steel and plastic. Beautiful in a weird way.

Even the swords she was using, I noticed, were different. They were straighter than Roukanken and Hakurouken, her usual swords, were. They were far more European-looking longswords, of equal length, and both had their edges serrated like one of those combat knives Sanae used to nerd out over. Her fighting form was still for katana, though. That much hadn’t changed.

“…Oh, it’s you again.” The Hisoutensoku took a step forwards, shaking the ground under it. “Defending the humans? I know I’m repeating myself, but why would you even bother? I’m sure your mistress must be rolling in her grave.”

“Well, I’m half-human, above all else.” Youmu sheathed both her swords at once, crossed behind her back, and with the same motion retrieved her usual blades from their sheaths. I’d noticed the name engraved on the hilt beforehand. Roukanken, and Hakurouken, the hilts painted white and re-sculpted, but otherwise just as they’d always been…

Of course, I was quickly realizing nothing here would fit my expectations.

 _Instead_ , Youmu pulled out two swords, but not blades with a sharp edge. Instead, they were rounded and rimmed with metal teeth. Each blade had a trigger, like that of a gun, on its hilt, which Youmu slipped her fingers into. The flat of each blade was some kind of white metal, with the name of each blade written in black calligraphic writing on it. Unlike the katana and wakizashi I was used to her using, both blades were identical besides their hilts, which were mirrored, one for the right hand and one for the left.

Youmu pulled the triggers on her blades for just a moment, and the metal teeth on the outside of each blade spun at a blinding speed, though for just a moment.

Oh. Right. It was a chainsaw.

Thank goodness for Sanae and her outside-world nerdery or I’d still have no damn clue what was going on.

But Youmu’s weapon was different too! It wasn’t just my mini-Hakkero that had been messed up. Youmu’s treasured blades had become an entirely different class of weapon! Though it seemed she was much more used to wielding the new weaponry than I was.

“Oh! This is cute. That’s a cute weapon, too. You know what my weapons do?” The Hisoutensoku pointed off towards the enormous hole that made me give Crescent Mountain its name. “That.”

“…I’m aware, thanks.” Youmu took a step forwards. “So. Will you back off if I say please?”

“…Genuinely not sure what you’re trying to accomplish there, gardener girl.” Nitori sighed. “But I guess there’s no reasoning with humans, is there. Fine! If you want a fight, you’ve got it!”

Youmu looked back to me, and broke her deadpan serious face, winking at me with a grin.

“You know, I’ve gotten a _lot_ stronger lately,” she said to me. “So just sit back and relax! I’ve got this.”

Youmu leapt forwards, as rockets attached to her arms fired, accelerating her so fast I could hardly see her. She appeared for moments around each arm of the Hisoutensoku, only because she was stopping for just an instant. Finally, she appeared above its head, where she slashed downwards, her chainsaws impacting the Hisoutensoku unit’s skull. But the original Roukanken couldn’t cut through metal that thick, so these-

Sparks flew from where her twin chainsaws impacted, and they dug deep into the robot’s skull. As she yanked them back out, the entire head of the Hisoutensoku tore apart, as if shredding itself from the inside. In it, though I could barely see from this distance, sat Nitori, still in her usual outfit, but this time, in shock.

Youmu sheathed her chainsaws near-instantly and scooped up Nitori under her arm like it was nothing. With a single jump, she launched herself back into the air, and with a clever application of her arm jets, she was standing right back where I was within seconds.

She dropped Nitori on the ground, who began to cough.

“ _Dammit_ you’re the worst! Just _kill me_ if you’re going to be like that!” Nitori slammed her fist on the ground. “Don’t just go destroying all my robots!”

“…See, Nitori, I’m not from a place that advocates killing.” Youmu smiled. “Besides, I know that’s not a big loss for you!”

“…Wait, how?” Nitori looked up at her. “The optical camouflage should…”

Youmu shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. But I’m one of the few that can fly, and the other side of this mountain is _totally_ full of uncamouflaged robots, so. Draw your own conclusions.”

“…Well. If _that’s_ how you’re playing your cards.” Nitori stood. “Yeah, I’m hiding a _lot_ of firepower on this mountain. But I don’t want the kappa to be targeted just yet. We’re not the biggest fish out there. Not yet. So you keep it secret, and I’ll keep pretending like I don’t know where the Haku Alliance’s shelter is. And even _more_ so, I’ll pretend I don’t have an army of giant robots ready to kill you all at any time.”

Nitori held out her hand to Youmu. “Deal?”

Youmu shook Nitori’s hand. “Absolutely. But I can’t make any promises about our residents not stealing.”

“As if I really care about that.” Nitori smirked. “That’s like twenty cucumbers out of our _thousands_. Not a big deal at all, but you know. I need the target practice sometimes.”

I looked on in horror. This conversation would be _unthinkable_ in the Gensokyo I remembered. Youmu looked a little guilty too…

“So. We’ll leave, and you’ll let us.” Youmu let go. “I’m wondering why, but I won’t curse a blessing.”

“It’s not that I don’t hate you, it’s just that we’ve got bigger fish to fry.” Nitori grinned. “Sure your folks know all about that.”

“All right, then. I’ll leave.” Youmu turned away from her, and patted me once on the shoulder as she passed. “Marisa, you follow me. I need to ask you a few questions, now that you’ve _finally_ shown up.”

***

Sitting down just on the outskirts of the Forest of Magic, Youmu took a deep breath, and smacked the side of her neck. Some of the metal around that area slid back into a panel in her collarbone, making her now notably human neck visible.

“…It’s combat armor,” she explained, seeing the look I was giving her. “It’s hard to mechanize the neck, and easy to protect it.”

“…No, really, _what_?” I asked.

Youmu sighed, and repositioned herself, cross-legged. She motioned for me to sit in front of her, and I did.

“So. How much do you remember about old Gensokyo?” she asked.

My eyes widened.

“You remember old Gensokyo too?”

Youmu nodded. “Better than anyone else we’ve found so far.”

“You’ve found _others_?”

“Well…” Youmu began counting on her fingers. “Yuyuko has a vague recollection, Kosuzu… probably remembers, and Akyuu’s reincarnation here, Altria, has the same powers, so she remembers too, but she’s a little traumatized right now, so she’s not saying much. Outside of that, nobody I know of.”

“Kosuzu is alive?!” I grinned. “Knew that girl had some fight in her!”

“Um, well…” Youmu sighed. “She most certainly does. But, since you only just arrived here, I’ll just assume you don’t know anything, and try to explain the situation. Okay?”

“Wait, how long have you been conscious here?”

Youmu chuckled, though there was an immense sadness behind it. “Fifty years. I’ve been waiting for you and Reimu for _fifty years_.”

“Oh my gods.”

“And that’s not it! I _died!_ Torn into three pieces while trying to save the humans, and we only found two of them!” Youmu mimed the violence with her hands. “As you might have noticed, my ghost half is _gone!_ Yuyuko used her new powers to save me, but look at me now. An entirely _new_ kind of half-human!”

“Gods, I’m sorry, Youmu, I didn’t…”

“Not your fault.” She leaned back a bit, looking up to the sky. “You wouldn’t know, anyways. You haven’t been here as long as I have.”

“Where is… here, then?”

“Well, I don’t strictly know.” Youmu looked back to me. “My theory is that we’re all dead and this is Hell. The real one, not the one under Gensokyo.”

“…That’s a bit heavy.”

“What else would it be?” Youmu said. “We’re here living in a wasteland, scrounging for food, devoid of magic and our original powers, and the Spellcard Rules have all gone to hell so killing is just fair game. Mutilation’s just the cherry on top.”

“…Sorry, the Spellcard Rules?”

“Oh. Don’t worry about those. You’ll start remembering more the longer you’re here, and you’ll remember that relatively quickly, I’m sure. There’s still that gap between the last day of true Gensokyo and first of this Gensokyo in everyone’s memory, but everything else comes back pretty quick.”

“All right.”

“Anyways. Yuyuko and I have more experience than most people here, so let me just outline what’s going on here.”

***

Youmu used the tip of one of her non-chainsaw swords (the disposable ones, I supposed) to draw in the dirt, sketching out a general map of Gensokyo as I knew it. The Bamboo Forest of the Lost, Forest of Magic, Human Village, the entrances to Old Hell, the Genbu Ravine… I remembered more or less all of it.

“Okay. So.”

Youmu crossed out the entire Bamboo Forest.

“The Bamboo Forest got burned down on my second year here. We call it Hell 2 now.” Youmu looked up at me. “Any questions?”

I glared at her.

“Okay. _I_ call it Hell 2. Everyone else calls it the Plains of the Sun.” Youmu put her hand to her chin. “Uh, what else…”

She crossed out the _Garden_ of the Sun.

“…also burned down, Yuuka is presumed dead but we aren’t sure. Sure helps clear up the confusion with the Plains, though…” Youmu bit her lip, and then also crossed out the Human Village. “Destroyed by Kosuzu’s Horde…”

“…Sorry, _what_?”

“Oh. Yeah, as it turns out,” Youmu said, “when she showed up, she instantly became an _incredibly_ strong youkai full of black magic. The only source of it that _exists_ right now. She remembers events nobody else does, but she’s hostile, so we can’t talk to her for long. I nearly died the one time we had a chance to. We’re not sure _what_ she is anymore.”

“And who’s ‘we’?”

“Oh. Should’ve mentioned that first.” Youmu drew a circle somewhere outside Gensokyo on the map. “Hakugyokurou. It _somehow_ survived, but the Saigyou Ayakashi is gone, and Yuyuko is a human again.”

“…That’s unusual,” I commented.

“Got over _that_ a while ago. Anyways, like I was saying, the Forest of Magic became the Petrified Forest sometime before I showed up, which _apparently_ is related to why the sky is fucked…” Youmu continued marking up the map. “Thanks to _that_ mess, ordinary humans start to burn after a few hours out in the sun, so we made an underground settlement in the Petrified Forest with Yuyuko’s new powers. Between us and the humans, that’s the Haku Alliance, one of the factions here.”

“And the others?”

“You’ve met one of them. Nitori’s Hisouten Army, Kosuzu’s Horde, and then there’s the House of Eternity, the Eientei crowd’s faction.” Youmu tapped the ex-Bamboo Forest’s location. “We don’t know much about them, since humans can’t survive in the Plains of the Sun anymore, but they send us rabbit couriers sometimes, so we know they’re at least _alive._ Aside from those, we’re not really sure what groups exist.”

“Then, is the Moriya Shrine still…”

“Oh, that’s the hole in Crescent Mountain.” Youmu grinned. “You should’ve seen it, it was _insane_. Back then, the Hisouten Army was at odds with the Moriya Shrine, and _that’s_ the result.”

“Wait, so Sanae is _dead?!_ ”

“No, the Moriya people all survived. They knew it was coming. But now they’re in hiding, which _sucks_ , because I really want to see if they have any info that might help the Haku Alliance.” Youmu rubbed the flat of her blade along the edge of the divide between Buddhist and Taoist territory, blurring the line. “Speaking of religion stuff, also, Byakuren and Miko are both using their temples as shelters for youkai and humans displaced by the disaster. They’re not a faction right now, but they’re definitely allies. They’re both incredibly strong, and since they protect that area, it’s really the only ‘safe’ place left in the entire world, but good luck getting _there_ without being vaporized.”

“You’re really glossing over some important stuff here.”

“Sorry.” Youmu continued marking up the map. “Trying to think this through is harder than I thought. It’s… been a while since I thought about old Gensokyo.”

“I suppose that’s fair.” I tried to think of other locations that were important. “What happened to Old Hell?”

“Surprisingly, not much. They’re just as much of a lawless wasteland as the world up here, but…” Youmu gestured around her. “A _different_ lawless wasteland. They don’t have to deal with the solar radiation, anyways.”

Oh, thank goodness they were more-or-less all right. I had a few friends down there.

“Oh, and one last thing.” Youmu pointed over to by the Misty Lake on her map. “The Scarlet Devil Mansion is just _gone_ and we have no idea where to, but the people who lived there are most _certainly_ alive, and they’re completely feral. Just run if you see any of them.”

“Great.”

“Welcome to Gensokyo. I’d give you a celebratory cake, but the famine is still on, so… tough luck, I guess?” Youmu stood, and held out a hand to me. “As of right now, the Haku Alliance is still trying to find more humans to save, but more importantly, we’re after information as to why this all happened, so if you remember anything, speak up, okay?”

“I will.” I took her hand, and she helped me up.

“Well then.” Youmu looked me over really quick. “Looks like you have sun protection, somehow. I could take you with me, then!”

“What, really?”

“It’d be great to, actually. I’m pretty lonely, typically. Plus, despite my current speed and power, I’m still, relatively speaking, weak. A Hisoutensoku is one thing, since it’s big and doesn’t move much, but small, fast targets are hard for me to hit.” Youmu grinned. “But the Master Spark doesn’t discriminate, now does it?”

“Well. You got that right.” I stood up, lugging the HKR-08 with me as I did. “Then where to, captain?”

“That’s up to you. I’m dead out of leads.” Youmu sheathed her sword. “Came out here originally to help out those humans we saved earlier, but so long as I’m out, I might as well do some scout work. If you’ve any friends you want to check on, now’s the time.”

Once more, my mind told me to find Reimu. But…

“Say, Youmu. Where’s Reimu?” I asked.

I figured she wouldn’t be quite so easy to find, being Reimu and all.

“Well. There’s theories about where _she_ went.” Youmu tapped her throat, and her neck guard slid back up from inside her chest. “Nobody really knows, though. It’s been a topic of debate for a while.”

“But she’s here?”

“…it’s more of a hope than a fact, Marisa. I’m sorry.” Youmu glanced off to the side, perhaps a little guilty about telling me that. “It’s like religions promising Armageddon, you know? The primary belief system here is Reimu, and the believers are sure she’ll come back to save them. But it’s already been much longer than they realize.”

“…All right.”

I knew Reimu was here somewhere, but clearly, Youmu didn’t think so. I wasn’t ready to go anywhere on my own just yet, so it was better to go along with her for now than to deny her and risk upsetting her, and ultimately, separation. So, as far as friends I remembered and wanted to find…

“Hey, what about Alice?”

My best friend in old Gensokyo. I mean, Reimu was too. I wouldn’t decide between them at gunpoint, though, they’re both precious to me. No _were_ required- They _are_. And always will be.

“Alice, huh! You’re lucky, I _do_ know where she is. She’s with the House of Eternity. I haven’t been able to get there, since the Plains are a warzone right now, but with the Master Spark to clear away the mess, we might just make a little progress!” Youmu nodded. “All right, then. To the Plains of the Sun!”

“…Please walk, though, I can’t fly like you.”

“I know, I know.” Youmu turned away from me, and began to walk. “Come on. We’ve got Alice to find, and we don’t have forever until the sun sets!”

…Forever, huh.

I had found myself in a very strange world. Gensokyo, but not Gensokyo. With memories not my own. But I wasn’t the only one here, at the very least.

Youmu and I had always been strong, at least in old Gensokyo. We’d never had a chance to combine our forces this way. But now that we could, maybe we could find Alice. And ultimately, maybe even Reimu. I _had_ to find her. I didn’t know why yet. I didn’t remember much. But that much I knew was fact. If Youmu wasn’t enough, I’d go straight to Yukari for all I cared. But I _had_ to find Reimu.

Maybe she’d know how to end this incident.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the end notes! I don't have that much to say for this.
> 
> I kind of wish I had fleshed out Youmu's cyborg design a little more. I definitely could've done better in that sense, but oh well. I have a reference drawing, so if it comes down to it, I can redraw it and upload it to the story. Besides that, I'm worried that this might be a little unfriendly to Touhou newcomers, but I assume anyone reading Touhou fanfiction's been embroiled in this mess for as long as they've lived, so that's probably not an issue.
> 
> Hopefully the location renaming wasn't too confusing(?).


End file.
